The Fundraising Playbook: Fairy Floss Edition
Description
The Fundraising Playbook: Fairy Floss Edition
Fairy floss is one of the most profitable stalls you can run at a school or community event. The ingredients are cheap, it sells on impulse, and the machine itself is half the entertainment. People stop to watch it spin before they’ve even decided to buy. Kids drag their parents over, and adults who haven’t had fairy floss since they were ten suddenly rediscover it.
Inside the playbook:
- Planning
- Equipment
- Quantities
- Pricing
- Setup
- Safety
- Service
- Pack down
- Reconciliation
Why it works for P&Cs
It’s easy to run, usually needs only one or two volunteers, and doesn’t need eskies, refrigeration or a big food prep setup. The sugar stores well, so there’s no spoilage and no unusable stock left over after the event. Once the machine is heated and stocked, the spinning does most of the selling for you.
It’s also a fundraising asset you can use again and again. Think movie nights, school discos, fetes, school plays, sports days, markets and community events. Our own teachers ran a stall at the school disco, and one kindy teacher said her line didn’t stop for two whole hours. 🍭
The maths on 200 serves at $5
- Income: $1,000
- Machine (one off): $377.00
- Floss and sticks: $48.60
- First event profit: $574.40
Every event after that: $951.40 profit, with each serve costing about 24¢.
Own it once, share it often
The P&C owns the machine and the school borrows it. That’s the beauty of an asset library: buy once, use again and again. It’s a no brainer for your Christmas party or end of year disco.
Less grind. More good.